Nonprofit awards scholarships to Little Miami football players who got suspended for flying thin blue, red flags at game

A nonprofit organization supporting first responders announced it will be giving scholarships to two football players from Little Miami High School who got suspended for flying thin blue and thin red flags at their game last week.

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Little Miami High School

Before Friday night’s game, Brady Williams and Jarad Bentley ran on the football field carrying flags — a thin blue line flag in support of police and a thin red line flag in support of firefighters.

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Williams’ father is a Warren County Sheriff’s deputy and Bentley’s father is a firefighter in Deerfield Township. Friday was also Sept. 11.

“That’s the only thing it was about, to honor those police officers and firefighters that lost their lives on 9/11. That was it,” said Scott Williams, Brady Williams’ father. “It’s not political. Unfortunately, it’s being turned political.”

Scott Williams said the boys were never told they couldn’t run with the flags.

“That’s just not the case. The athletic director who called my son in the day of the game said, ‘I can’t tell you yes. I can’t tell you no. We can’t take a position either way on you carrying the flag.’ So, he carried the flag,” Scott Williams said.

Following outrage in the community and on social media, school board president Bobbie Grice released a statement that said the students didn’t get permission to show support in the manner in which they did.

“While the district understands these students’ desire show their support of our first responders especially on the anniversary of 9/11, they did not obtain permission from district officials to do this. School administrators must act when students break the rules, and these students were suspended from practice while the incident was investigated.

With the board’s support, the superintendent and high school administrators have completed the investigation. The results show that there were no political motivations behind this display of support for first responders on 9/11, but there were stances of insubordination.

“Moving forward, Little Miami is returning the players to active status and this matter will be addressed as an Athletic Department Code of Conduct issue, with any potential consequences to be handled by coaching staff,” Grice wrote.

A local nonprofit called Holiday for Heroes heard about the incident and decided to act.

The nonprofit, which has been awarding scholarships and grants in the Tri-State for 15 years, decided to give 100% of their scholarship funds this year to the two athletes.

“Brady and Jarad are true patriots, they did something last Friday that showed they are far beyond their years. These men stood up for a cause they believe in,” the nonprofit said in a release. “As they took the field with flags in hand it reminded us how we felt 19 years ago, heartbroken yet strong and united. It is for this reason Holiday for Heroes has chosen Brady Williams and Jarad Bentley as two of our 2020 scholarship award recipients.”

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